The average level of provision of Ukrainian agricultural enterprises with mineral fertilizers for spring field work as of January 28, 2022 was 22%, having increased by 11% over the period of January 20 through January 28, according to a presentation on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday.
According to the ministry, it does not yet have data on fertilizer stocks in six regions: Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Kherson and Cherkasy.
Kharkiv (65% of the total demand) and Zaporizhia regions (57%) are best provided for the upcoming sowing season, followed by Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk (40% each), Kirovohrad and Khmelnytsky (29% each), Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr (26% each), Ternopil (25%), Donetsk (24%), Dnipropetrovsk (20%), Mykolaiv and Odesa (17% each), Volyn (14%), Poltava (12%), Chernihiv (10%), Rivne ( 6%) and Luhansk (4%) regions.
Ukraine will spend at least $4-5 billion to stabilize the economic situation, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“To stabilize our economy, we will spend about $4-5 billion. I do not count on a smaller figure, this is the amount we need,” Zelensky said at a briefing with foreign media representatives in Kyiv on Friday.
The President said that the West, providing Ukraine with funding and assistance, gives an appropriate signal of support for the country.
“But the question is still not in the amount, but in the fact that they believe in the economy of Ukraine and send the appropriate signals,” Zelensky said.
The mobile network operator Kyivstar in the fourth quarter of 2021 increased its total revenue by 12.5% year-over-year, to UAH 7.537 billion, according to the company’s website.
According to the published data, for the specified period, Kyivstar increased EBITDA by 8.7% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 4.839 billion. At the same time, the EBITDA margin fell by 2.3 percentage points (pp), to 64.2%.
Total operating income grew by 12.3%, to UAH 6.993 billion.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the use of mobile Internet per subscriber increased by an average of 20% compared to the same period in 2020, to 7.1 GB.
The use of international roaming services, in particular data transmission, also increased year-over-year. The number of Kyivstar subscribers using 4G services in its network grew by 30.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, to 12.1 million.
The total number of Kyivstar mobile subscribers over the specified period rose by 1.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, to 26.2 million subscribers.
Kyivstar fixed-line internet and TV revenues grew by 11.9% thanks to the 7.3% increase in the number of Home Internet service customers. The total number of clients of the Home Internet service in the fourth quarter of 2021 reached 1.2 million.
Kyivstar’s operating CAPEX in the fourth quarter of last year rose by 45.7%, to UAH 1.8 billion.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communication and data transmission services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed-line technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2020, its services were used by about 25.9 million mobile subscribers and about 1.1 million fixed-line Internet customers.
Kyivstar’s shareholder is the international group VEON (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (New York).
Among 136 company executives surveyed by the European Business Association, some 45% of companies are ready to continue operating even in the event of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine, another 17% of companies consider the relocation to the western regions, some 10% think of leaving the country in the worst-case scenario, while 7% fear that external aggression may lead to the closure of their business.
“A quarter of the EBA member companies see the situation on eastern borders as a psychological attack through disinformation in the media. Meanwhile, the majority, namely 67%, believe that Ukraine and the international community should stay alert,” the EBA said in a press release on Friday following results of the survey conducted among member companies on January 24 to January 27.
However, some 40% of EBA member companies have their contingency plans, some 40% think of preparing ones, and 15% are currently without any plans. Companies note the difficulties of plan preparation as there are too many potential scenarios to be considered.
Most of the companies with “plan B” formed it with consideration of the following priorities: the first is providing safety for people (employees, their families and customers), the second is the security of assets, documents, data, financial stability, while the third is ensuring the viability of the company and business continuity.
With regard to the safety of people, companies are considering relocation, evacuation, information and support, the association said.
Common plans for the preservation of assets include the physical protection of property and equipment or its relocation to other regions, strengthening information security, withdrawal of funds, and insurance, the EBA said.
Some 58% of companies plan to retain their team, while for 14% this is not even a question, they continue to hire and develop people. Only 14% say they will resort to laying off some employees or sending them on unpaid leave, while 4% think of reducing the salaries, according to the survey data.
“We also asked companies what factors will be most important for their business in the case of an emergency. For most respondents (91%), it is a stable operation of the infrastructure which includes telecommunications, financial, ground-based logistics. Meanwhile, 62% consider it important to have constant communication and enough information from country leaders. For 60%, the most essential is to have a smooth and coordinated work of state agencies and services,” the EBA said.
The association urged the authorities to pay attention to these aspects that can heavily impact business operations at a critical moment.
“Also communicate more with companies because this is what helps to reduce misinformation and tension” the EBA said.
